The foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and China are planning to meet in Seoul on March 21-22 for the first time in three years in the latest sign of easing tensions in East Asia.
The gathering of Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, his counterpart Wang Yi of China and Yun Byung-se of South Korea, will be the first trilateral high level meeting since April 2012 -- before Sino-Japanese ties nose-dived over a lingering territorial dispute.
The meeting is expected to pave the way for a three-way summit among Prime Minster Shinzo Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Park Geun Hye.
Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping broke the ice with a frosty handshake on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in November.
Japan and China have long been at odds over the sovereignty of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, which Japan administers and calls the Senkakus but which China claims as the Diaoyus.
Relations soured in 2012 when the Japanese government angered China by nationalising some of the islands.
Since then, Tokyo and Beijing have routinely butted heads over the issue, with official Chinese ships and aircraft regularly testing Japanese forces.
The November meeting between Abe and Xi came on the heels of the joint issuance of largely similar statements on the dispute that observers noted were sufficiently vague to allow both sides to claim victory to domestic audiences.
In the planned meeting, a range of issues including economy, energy, six-party talks to address North Korea's nuclear program, and counter-terror measures are expected to be discussed.
© Japan Today/AFP
4 Comments
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TrevorPeace1
WHERE??? I'll be back in Japan on those dates, and would like to attend, if the meeting's there, and of course if my country's embassy (Canada) could arrange it.
Wouldn't anyone here be interested in being a fly on the wall???
liarsnfools
Xi was the host of a multilateral leaders meeting and the graciousness of hosting meant that he could grip but not grin in greeting Abe.
Now the Koreans are trying to engineer a trilateral summit in Seoul with the possibility that Park Geun-hye, as the hostess, can also hold a bilateral with Abe. This does not have to be a cold meeting, but a lot will depend on Abe's stance. Minimally, the fact of a bilateral can be taken care of, and people can move on.
The Koreans incidentally are the ice-breakers here. They host the trilateral secretariat which is responsible for fostering trilateralism primarily because neither the Chinese nor Japanese leadership like each other enough to house the secretariat in Tokyo or Beijing.
bjohnson23
Why is Xi not attending and sending his second instead as Abe and Park are respective leaders only fair if China's leader attends.
Jandworld
Here you go, meeting right in the middle where there is a lot of work to be done.